


Radiant

by TalesOfOnyxBats



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angel/Demon Relationship, Angels, Demons, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:54:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23531149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TalesOfOnyxBats/pseuds/TalesOfOnyxBats
Summary: She was sent to corrupt the boy. But the boy has corrupted her.
Relationships: Aang/Azula (Avatar)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 101





	Radiant

She grazes her fingers over his cheek. The boy is a softie, he should be easy. She presses her lips to the crook of his neck as she toys with the immaculate white feathers of his wings. He goes tense at the touch of her lips. “Come on, Aang.” She murmurs slowly. “It’s just one little thing.” 

“It’s still not right.” He replies. 

Azula rolls her eyes as she pulls away from him. “Who is it hurting?” She asks as she slips a stick of vivid red lipstick into her purse. “Live a little.” She shrugs. “I’m not asking you to lift pricey jewelry.” That will come in time, after she has put a pinprick of darkness into his soul. 

All she needs is a little needlehole of darkness. 

From there it grows on its own. 

It always does. 

“Maybe you should put it back.” The angel replies. 

“Hmmm…” she pretends to consider. “Don’t think so.” She gives her bangs a flick and flashes a falsely innocent smile. 

She grabs his hand and yanks him towards the door. But for such a little guy, he is surprisingly good at rooting himself to the floor. “I’m not leaving until you put that back.”

She supposes that she can work with that. “Then you’re just going to have to take it from me.” And she isn’t giving it up without a fight. 

Even so, the boy is impressively good at evading conflict. He simply looks at her and shakes his head sadly. “I’ll just go my separate way then.” He rubs his head nervously. 

Azula suppresses and agitated groan. “Fine.” She removes the lipstick from her purse and plucks it back onto the shelf, albeit the wrong shelf, but a shelf no less. She supposes that she can corrupt him elsehow. 

Though she is growing antsy. She has been at this for nearly a week and she hasn’t put even the smallest crack in his moral purity. She folds her arms over her chest. “Where to?”

He thinks for a bit. “Want to go to the park?”

She certainly has no interest in doing so. She agrees no less. It is all the more reason to try to darken the boy; so she won’t have to tag along on pointless and dull adventures. She is also more than ready to be done with this human form; it lacks power and presence especially in comparison to her demon form. Exchanging dark and suave, form fitting dresses for brow piercings, jeans, and red flannel shirts isn’t particularly thrilling. And she quite misses her obsidian horns. 

Though he won’t let her in, won’t trust her, if he doesn’t think that she is simply just another routy delinquite. 

Still, she will keep up the facade. She draws a cigarette from her purse and lights it. She holds the pack out to Aang, “go on, I have plenty.” 

“No thanks.” Aang smiles. “You really shouldn’t do that either.” 

She rolls her eyes and takes a drag. Honestly, it is almost endearing how innocent the boy is. His hand curls around her wrist and he gently pushes the cigarette away from her lips. “You’re really pretty, I don’t know why you’d want to ruin that.” 

“Geez.” Azula grumbles. “You’re really something.”

“ _ I’m _ something?” He asks, gesturing to the tattoos on her arms and piercings on her face. 

She pulls her beanie from her head and puts it on Aang’s. “Try something new.” She insists again. “Do something dangerous. Or at least something questionable. Hell, I’d be happy if you littered.” This isn’t strictly true, she isn’t fond of uncessecarry messes. But she can’t afford to be choosey at this point.

Aang crinkles his nose, “and mess all of this up?” He gestures to the verdant, blooming greenery all around them. It smells fresh and full of life like lilac and sakura. 

“Fine. Then swim in that pond, skateboard on that stairwell that says no skateboarding! Do something fun!” 

**.oOo.**

With another week having gone by, she decides to take a different approach. The angel doesn’t have a rebellious bone in his body, even if he is also taking up a human one. But he has an abundance of love. 

And love isn’t a very long distance away from lust.

She has a few minutes before he will arrive at her apartment so she takes the time to look herself over. It is nice to be back in a sleek dress that accents her curves. Though she normally goes for black, bright red will serve her well. It is, afterall, the color of passion. She taps a perfectly manicured pointer against the glass of the mirror before deciding to apply her eye makeup a little heavier. 

She hears a knock just as she puts the brush down. 

“Aang.” She greets with a half smile. 

He blinks several times. “Uhhh...you’re dressed a little...fancy.” He finishes lamely. “I didn’t think we were going anywhere special.”

“Oh, we’re not going anywhere at all.” She half-purrs. She beckons him inside, simultaneously working to weave her web. “Sit.” She gently yet firmly pushes him onto the sofa and pours him a glass of wine. 

To her surprise, he smiles, thanks her, and has a little sip. But no more than that. She tries to coax him into finishing his glass but he only downs half of it before declaring that he doesn’t want to drink too much. Several attempts in, she finds herself sitting with her arms folded over her chest, staring grumpily at the opposite wall. 

It would seem that the other demons are right, the boy is impossible to crack. She can’t even get him to jaywalk and here she is trying to get him drunk enough to seduce. 

“What’s wrong?” He asks. 

She dismissively waves her hand.

“Did I do something?”

She sniffs and gives a stiff laugh. It is quite the opposite. “I think that you can see yourself out.” She replies, having wasted a good two hours already. 

Aang seems to frown. She thinks that it may be the first time she has seen him look anything less than cheerful. “Sorry for…” he trails off. “Whatever I did to upset you.” 

His apology only makes her feel a deeper sense of revulsion. She doesn’t understand why he doesn’t just tell her to stay away from him. To, at least, question why she is so keen on trying to get him to do bad things.

Perhaps he has simply seen so many demons, known to him or not, that it no longer fazes him. 

“Will you stop looking at me like that if I finish the glass?” He concedes. 

Azula’s eyes light up. A malicious delight welling up within her. “I will.” She agrees, though she plans and leaving it as little more than an empty promise. 

“Then I guess another half of a glass can’t hurt, if it’ll cheer you up.”

Azula’s eyes narrow and she nearly sighs in defeat; even when the boy is doing something naughty like drinking (though she can’t imagine that he is  _ that  _ much of a lightweight for it to be a problem) too much, he is doing it for a pure reason. 

She rolls her eyes as she watches him drink and lights up a cigarette. 

“How many glasses will it take to get you to put that down?”

Azula quirks a brow. She can’t help but smirk slightly, so the boy can play games too. “Five.”

“Five!?”He throws his hands up. “How about just one more?” 

“Four.” 

“Two.” 

“Four.” Azula repeats. 

“Three, take it or leave it.” Aang budges. 

Azula hesitates before replying with a drawn out, “fine.” She plucks the cigarette into the ashtray on the table and pours him his first glass of three. She hopes that by the next two he will be intoxicated enough to accept her advances. 

But it is not so, he can handle his drinks better than she can imagine. She isn’t too thrilled to say that she is slightly tipsy while his cheeks aren’t even slightly pink. Azula blows at a few strands of hair that have fallen into her face, her arms are once again folded across her chest, but this time for knowing that her plans have begun to backfire. 

“You okay?” Aang asks. 

Azula frowns deeper. 

“Why don’t we get you to bed?” 

“Sounds like a wonderful idea.” She tries to muster a sultry drawl but it comes out as a lazy slurred thing. And in that, her meaning is lost. He loops an arm around her waist and helps her walk to her room, occasionally catching her when she stumbles. She curses her human for once more for being so vulnerable. 

Aang lowers her onto the bed. She makes one last attempt to plant a seed of darkness. As he lowers her, she pulls him down with her. 

He laughs and she realizes that he is chalking it up to her being drunkenly clumsy. She scoffs in defeat as he stands back up and pulls the covers up to her shoulders. “I can spend the night if you want.” He offers. 

She gives another dismissive wave, but this one is more or less of the tired variety. 

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow then.” 

She rubs her cheek against her pillow and listens for the closing of a door. 

She dreams that night, it is something that she hasn’t done in ages. In the dream she floats weightlessly. There is a serene feeling as clouds drift by her and feathers rain around her. There is light. So much light.

It should frighten her.

Should hurt her. 

Instead, it almost soothes her. 

**.oOo.**

She doesn't know what is happening to her and she is afraid. Her wings aren’t so leathery nor tattery anymore. They are growing soft and feathered. 

Her horns are different too, they aren’t so black as they are a soft ivory and if caught in a certain light, they flash gold-orange like a flame.

The sclera of her eyes aren’t so dark. 

She isn’t so dark anymore. 

She wraps her arms protectively around herself and turns away from the mirror, an uneasy tingle forming in her belly. 

Whatever this is, she doesn’t like it.

It had started with that dream. At first, the change was so subtle that she hadn’t noticed. It had just been her eyes; the hue shifted gradually from piercing red to a brilliant gold. She had been able to ignore this as they were still startling and vivid to behold against black. But then her sclera began going white and the gold of her irises grew almost radiant. 

She could still ignore this. 

She could even ignore the change in her horns. 

But her wings…

Now that they are changing…

Azula shudders and seats herself on the sofa. She needs to do something horrible. Something absolutely dreadful that will drive the light right out. Her worry begins to fade, it will be an easy thing to do. She’ll make her way to the nearest school and set it aflame. The screams will draw the darkness back into her soul, just the way it should be. 

She gets to her feet and makes her way towards the school. The campus grounds are filled with delighted yells and the laughter of children at play. The flame dances on her fingertip and yet she hesitates. She grips her head, why is she hesitating? She takes a deep breath and brings the fire back to her palms. If she can just push through the discomfort, all will return to the way it should be and she will abandon her quest to darken the angel. 

He is becoming a danger. 

She tosses the fire onto the ground before her and watches it creep along. And then she turns her head. She can’t bring herself to watch it happen this time. Next time though, when her soul is good and shrouded again. 

“Don’t kill all of those kids.” Comes a familiar voice.

“Go away, Aang.” Azula grumbles. 

He has a lot of nerve, she’ll give him that; he takes her hands. “I can tell that you don’t really want to.”

Azula bites her cheek. “I certainly do.” 

“Then why are you looking away?”

“Because the sounds of death are satisfying enough for me.” 

Aang’s mouth presses into a firm line. With more force than she ever thought he could muster, her turns her towards the fire. Invisible to the human eye, it races towards the school. “Aang…” She mutters. 

“If you want to kill them, you’re going to have to watch it happen.”

It shouldn’t make her feel queasy, but the thought of watching them burn away does. She clenches her fists, grits her teeth, and stares dead ahead. The fire is now licking at the edge of the playground. 

Aang closes his eyes and slightly turns his head from the scene. She can feel his disappointment and hurt. She knows that he wishes that he could stop the flames himself. But hellfire can’t be manipulated by the angelic. 

The sickly feeling doesn’t subside as she had hoped and by the time the fire comes within a few feet of the first child, she finds herself extinguishing it. More of an impulse than a thought out action.

Aang perks up once more. 

But Azula is profoundly horrified. 

Horrified to the point of shaking. 

She stuffs her hands into her jacket pockets and begins a brisk walk in the opposite direction. There comes a shuffle behind her, sneakers on gravel. “Stay away from me, Aang.” She scowls as though she has the right. After days of stalking him around, she really doesn’t have much room to complain.

“Azula.” He says softly. She feels his hand catch her wrist. She abruptly jerks her arm away, and hastens her pace. The boy relents. 

**.oOo.**

But she lets him in when he comes to her next. Mostly because she is still anxious and she could simply use a distraction. Not that she actually finds it with him. 

By her standards, her condition is only worsening. She finds it harder to cast even simpler evils on the world. Though the difficulty comes in the form of a newfound sense of regret that seemed to follow in the wake of her misdeeds, however small. 

She thinks that it effects her so greatly because she is simply not used to feeling guilt at all. 

She shouldn’t feel it.

There is something wrong with her.

What kind of demon has remorse?

It sits in the back of her mind that the answer is as simple as she not being a demon at all. 

She buries her face in her hands.

She doesn’t know what she is.

A knock pulls her out of her speculation. It is a longing for distraction that pushes her to answer the door. When Aang enter she sighs and finds herself back on the sofa, feeling absolutely defeated. 

“What’s wrong?” He asks.

“What’s wrong?” She repeats. “Look at me!” 

Aang’s expression softens. “I don’t see the problem.” 

She only stares at him. And when he doesn’t speak up again she grumbles, “of course you don’t.” 

He inches closer. A little too close for her stomach not to flutter. He touches her cheek and gives her that cheerful smile. The one that is so big that he has to close his eyes when making it. “Just let it in, you’ll be fine. Trust me.” 

_ Let it in, _ she muses to herself. She knows exactly what he means. She grips his hand in her slightly shaking one. But she is still afraid. She isn’t sure what will happen to her if she lets the light in. She isn’t sure that she is compatible with it. “It’ll destroy me.” 

Aang shakes his head. “It will save you.” 

She doesn’t know if she believes him. She can name several fallen angels, there are books upon books about them. But she can’t even think of one ascended demon. She can imagine that it is because a demon simply can’t survive the light. 

“Sometimes change is good.” He adds. “I promise, you’ll be fine. You’ll be better than fine.” She wants to think him a liar. Wants to believe that he is coaxing her into getting herself killed. But this is the boy who wouldn’t even park in a no park zone. 

Perhaps it is worse to remain in a state of in between. Lingering between light and dark is becoming torment. The shadow mixes with the light in a most unpleasant way and she just wants the conflict to stop.

She has already tried to give the darkness domination...

Azula closes her eyes and swallows.

Drawing in a shaky breath, she invites the light into her body.

Into her heart. 

Into her soul. 

It is warm and calming, she feels her trepidations slowly retreating to be replaced by something kinder. Something...happy? 

She opens her eyes. Aang is still holding her hands. They look different; they are no longer pale and ashy, instead they are slightly sunkissed and seem to radiate a soft gold. Somehow, Aang manages to look happier still.

“I’m...I’m okay…?”

Aang nods, “I told you that you would be.” He pauses. “How do you feel?” 

She isn’t sure how to answer that. She supposes that she is confused. Confused and still somewhat nervous. She hasn’t a clue as to what exactly this means for her. Still isn’t sure what she is. She doesn’t know of any other demons turned angel. She doesn’t even know if it is truly possible at all. 

She had been sent to corrupt the boy, but the boy has corrupted her; putting light into her where there should be dark. 

Putting it there until the light shines so brilliantly that there is no dark left.

“It’s alright.” He says again, at her lack of response. “You’ll get used to this in no time.”

She simply nods.

“You look beautiful by the way.” He notes. “Your wings are so bright.” 

She lets him brush his fingers over them as she folds them around herself. They are just as large as her old wings, but they are kinder to the touch. A soft ivory, outlined in sparkling shades of gold, orange, and red.

“I’ve also never seen an angel with horns before.” He laughs. 

She touches her head, running her fingers over two sleek horns. She is thankful that she at least gets to keep those. She drops her hands to her sides and steals a glance at the window, unsure of what else to do. 

“You’re going to like this, trust me.”

She can’t bring herself to admit out loud that she doesn’t know what to do. Perhaps he can sense her distress because he adds, “I’ve been looking for a partner. If you want, I can show you how to be an angel.” 

“Okay.” She replies quietly. 

He gives a wide grin before pulling her into a hug. “Great, it’s really easy! Instead of trying to cause chaos and get people to commit crimes, we protect people and try to get them to do the right thing.”

“Absolutely sickening.” Azula sneers.

Aang laughs, “I thought that you’d say that.” 

“I’m surprised that I still can.”

Aang laughs again, “you’re still going to be you, Azula. Angels all have different personalities.”

“I don’t know what kind of angel shares my mentality…”

Aang shrugs, “you’re pretty much one of a kind. You’ll make a great guardian!” 

“A guardian?”

“Yeah, you can fight against the dark. The guardians are warrior angels.” He explains. 

She supposes that she can get on board with that. He takes her by the hand again, “you’ll be good at it.” 

“If you say so.” She replies. She still isn’t entirely confident. And is still rather nervous. That is what keeps her from pushing him away when he squeezes her in another hug. The warmth within her soul reacts well to it. She tries to relax into his comforting embrace. He pats her back between her wings and says, “let’s get going then, I have so many people for you to meet.” 


End file.
